Antonio

Thank you for bringing education up. Well when I browsed the archives for our village of Huejuquilla, Jalisco, Mexico, never say any comments about not being able to read or write, but the logs were recorded by the Friars or whoever was logging the books over confirmations, baptisms and such.

But I wonder if there were any schools in the Agricultural areas back during the colonial times? Are there any records of schools that existed?

It would be interesting to see what kind of education our ancestors had.

But I have read some information that the Conde of Hacienda San Mateo of Valparaiso, Zacatecas, Mexico by the name of Fernando De La Campa y Cos (1676 - 1742) stressed education.

Your success in education or profession sometimes depends on have role models or peers that are generation or more above you that have educational backgrounds that can guide you into the right direction, show you the propiate way to study so you can become sucessful and you can guide the younger generation.

I feel sorry for many people from the agricultural areas that have no role models, no peers that have educational backgrounds that can stress education, be a guide.

I really want to help out in our village of Huejuquilla to try to get everyone to at least graduate from Preparatoria (High School). Show them the correct way to study when they are at a young age, stress how education helps in life knowing the basics of math, reading and writing that helps in life when you have to fill out job applications, paper work, doing simple arithmetic for jobs.

I really feel sorry for the people from the agricultural areas that don't have the same opportunities or influences as people from the cities do.

Hi Linda,

In some of the cases, this wasn't true. I've found records from some of my ancestors where there is the same writing of "por no saber firmar lo hago yo para que conste", when I know that actually some of those ancestors did know how to write or read. For example, my third greatgrandfather Abraham Agraz wrote a whole diary of one of his journeys to Mexico City which now is written in a book published about 30 years ago by my uncle Gabriel. Abraham in some church records appeared as he didn't know to sign but I have the image of his signature in another book about the Agraz family.

I have another case where the record says "no vino a firmar por lo que lo hice yo". For me, this is kind of weird because I suppose the couple should be there at the time when the priest is writing down the wedding information. This is the case of the marriage record of my great great grandparents Julián García de Alba and Isidra Preciado, they knew how to write and read because they said they could in the Mexico's 1930 Census and Isidra was a teacher for a small period of time and also among of their properties, there was a considerable amount of books.

As a result, I think the second situation may be one of the reasons of why the priest instead of saying the couple wasn't there for signing, he wrote down that they didn't know how to write.

Enrique Agraz

In Nochistlan, I found that the españoles for the most part did not know how to read and write, It would say " no firmo por no saber"

Some of the indios in Nochistlan did know how to read and write. In Nochistlan there was a decree from "La Corte de los Reinos de Castilla" that, due to the maltreatment of the españoles towards the indios, the españoles could not live within the confines of the town of Nochistlan, the españoles lived in the rancherias or outlying areas within the municipality of Nochistlan.

The indios in Nochistlan were to be protected by the Catholic Church, thus they had to live within the city. In the book Los Duran de Nochistlan, it defines the plan of the city and identifies who could live within the town, therefore the indios were the ones who received an education. Most of the scribes in the early days were indios, they were ones who were educated.

Alicia

________________________________
From: "longsjourney@yahoo.com"
To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:12 AM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] education in Mexico

I'm working on marriage information records for Jerez, Zacatecas 1899 and am finding that 99% of the records say they can not read or write so the notary is signing the documents for them. I know Jerez was small but is this pretty standard for the education of people during those years?  Just wondering what others are finding in their research for Mexico during these years.
Linda in Everett

My research is in Jalpa, Zacatecas  and I find (maybe not 99%) the same thing.

----- Original Message -----
From: longsjourney@yahoo.com
To: research@lists.nuestrosranchos.org
Sent: Sunday, January 22, 2012 10:12:26 AM
Subject: [Nuestros Ranchos] education in Mexico

I'm working on marriage information records for Jerez, Zacatecas 1899 and am finding that 99% of the records say they can not read or write so the notary is signing the documents for them. I know Jerez was small but is this pretty standard for the education of people during those years?  Just wondering what others are finding in their research for Mexico during these years.
Linda in Everett